90 pc polio cases in Pakistan ‘imported’ from Afghanistan: Interim Health Minister Nadeem Jan

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Pakistan Interim Health Minister Nadeem Jan has said that 90 per cent of polio cases in Pakistan have been “imported from Afghanistan”, a news agency reported.

Nadeem’s remarks came after two more samples tested positive for the poliovirus in Pakistan, just a day after this year’s third case surfaced.

As per an official at the polio laboratory of the National Institute of Health (NIH), sewage samples collected from Dera Bugti, in Balochistan, and Peshawar had tested positive for the virus. Both viruses, found in sewage samples, are similar to Afghanistan’s poliovirus.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the polio virus remains endemic. According to authorities, the transmission of wild poliovirus has been restricted to seven districts in the south of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, namely Tank, Bannu, North Waziristan, South Waziristan Upper, South Waziristan Lower, Dera Ismail Khan and Lakki Marwat, as per Dawn.

In a report released in August, the World Health Organisation (WHO)said that since January 2021, all reported cases were from the seven polio-endemic districts in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. (ET)